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I come across a lot of stuff on the Web which I don’t necessarily want to expatiate on to any extent, but is worth bringing to the attention of people who drop by here regularly.

So I thought the sensible thing to do would be to bite the bullet and start a weblog. I can’t guarantee it will be updated every day, but I will update it as frequently as possible.

Friday 21st September 2001

We’ll meet violence with patient justice… — George W. Bush addresses Congress:

The United States respects the people of Afghanistan — after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid — but we condemn the Taliban regime. It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.

And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.

These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.

Following the speech, a poll shows that 90% of Americans support military action against those responsible for the attacks. The Taleban have rejected the ultimatum. In Pakistan, 70 people have been arrested at demonstrations against Pakistan support for the US.

Le Monde warns:

D’une certaine façon, la lutte contre le terrorisme ressemble à la lutte contre la drogue. Sans cesse remise sur le métier. On intercepte de petits trafiquants, mais on ne parvient pas à arrêter — ou, en tout cas, presque jamais — le “cerveau”. Le risque n’est pas mince, en effet, que la coalition antiterroriste, que les Etats-Unis tentent de mettre sur pied, s’embarque, selon un ancien colonel américain, dans “une guerre d’usure, sans fin, contre un ennemi sans visage” et que, selon un ancien colonel russe ayant servi en Afghanistan, “les Etats-Unis, avec ou sans alliés, se lancent dans une opération qui n’ait rien d’un pique-nique”.

[English]

Police in France have arrested seven people belonging to extremist Islamic groups who were allegedly planning to attack the US embassy.

Surprising developments: Jack Straw is to make an official visit to Iran. Straw has described the Taleban’s offer to let bin Laden leave Afghanistan of his own volition as puny and totally unacceptable.

Jane’s suggests that the attack may have been sponsored by Iraq and devised by Imad Mughniyeh of the Hezbollah ( Bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mughniyeh ) and Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri ( senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible successor of the ailing Osama Bin Laden).

High-tech or no-tech? According to the South China Morning Post, Bin Laden relies on human messengers, safe houses and close-knit groups such as family members to send out his directives. On the other hand, some of the terrorists involved in the actual attacks seem to have left clear electronic trails — but these would not necessarily have been picked up by greater Internet surveillance.

UK Muslim leaders hit out at the vocal minority of Muslims who have expressed support for the slaughter in America: These men are totally unrepresentative of British Muslims … They have no grassroots support and could only muster a few hundred supporters out of a Muslim community of over two million in the UK. In Exeter, pigs’ heads have been left outside a mosque.

In the wake of the attacks, Americans are afraid to fly — which is having a catastrophic effect on tourism-based industries in the USA. Chaos for UK airlines: insurance underwriters are going to cancel cover for war liabilities from midnight on Monday; UK airlines may have to ground their aeroplanes unless the government insures them. One airline is not suffering a lack of confidence at the moment: El Al.

The BBC’s Tehran correspondent explains why so many Arabs and Muslims hate America.

Terrorists may be developing the capability to deploy biological weapons — and the USA isn’t capable of defending itself against them.

The Earth shook: the seismic shock of the terrorist attack on New York. (This, by the way, is not a metaphor.)

The New York Times remembers Windows on the World.

Hollywood makes a sharp turn away from violence and mayhem to light, escapist movies.

From another planet: Saddam Hussein has said Iraq would have offered help for the US relief effort if it had been asked:

The Iraqi news agency quoted him as saying American attacks on Iraq had given his people good experience of rescue work and they would have helped for humanitarian reasons and not for the sake of the American government.

He said the Americans should have used Iraqi help in restoring essential services in New York, citing what he described as the swift rehabilitation of infrastructure in Iraq after the Gulf War.

A new craze? DIY submarines!

Thursday 20th September 2001

The Taleban have asked Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan voluntarily, but the USA has rejected this and insist he must be handed over. For the first time the Taleban has admitted bin Laden could have been involved in the terrorist attacks on the USA. The Afghan clerics say:

The United Nations and the OIC should take note of the American president’s remarks, who said that the war will be a crusade.

These remarks have hurt the feelings and the sentiments of the Muslim community and the remarks have posed a serious danger to the world.

In order to prevent such kind of incidents and that there should be no misunderstanding in future, this Ulema council requests the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to persuade Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and select a new place for himself.

If the United States attacks Afghanistan after these proposals, any U.S. action will be against the sacred Islamic law. It will amount to an act against Islam.

Bush has ordered heavy bombers to within striking distance of Afghanistan.

President Musharraf has defended to the Pakistan people his decision to assist the USA.

The FBI have arrested a Middle Eastern man outside Chicago in connection with the terrorist attacks. The FBI are also investigating the possibility that some of the terrorists may have used stolen identities.

Germany’s Bundestag supports the US, but that doesn’t mean everything is going smoothly for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Some in Europe are concerned about whether or not Bush knows what he is getting into:

[W]e in Europe have been living for decades with the daily possibility of lethal explosions, and we know that you cannot rely on stealth bombers to defeat the stealthy bombers on the ground…

If making war on terrorists were simple, the forces of the I.R.A. and E.T.A. would have been smoked out and hunted down long ago. But terrorist organizations are not nation-states that can be vanquished in conventional war.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee opposes Bush’s proposals to tackle terrorism. Groups woried about civil liberties, especially free speech and privacy, ask Congress to take things slowly.

We don’t have any new instructions from the federal government, so from now on we’re on our own, the captain of Flight 564 told passengers on Saturday before telling them what they should do should someone try to hijack the plane. Would advice like this have saved lives last Tuesday?

One person who has come out of the catastrophic events with his reputation enormously enhanced is Rudy Giuliani — the “true hero of the hour” as someone (David Letterman?) said.

William Safire calls for the broadcasting of effective propaganda into Afghanistan:

Why are Afghans not told that their rulers’ decision to hide Osama bin Laden is the direct cause of the withdrawal of U.N. relief and the starvation that they now face?

Why are the voices of revered, mainstream Muslim clerics not broadcast denouncing the perversion of Islam by the terrorists, and reminding the faithful that murder by suicide will lead not to heaven but to eternal damnation?

Michael Moore definitely does not follow the “party line”, pouring scorn on Bush’s intellect, his use of the terminology of war, and indeed his legitimacy as president. But some of his points are worth listening to, whatever your views:

When all the people in the Middle East have food on the table, a decent home, a good job, and democratic control over their own lives, who among them is going to be convinced to sacrifice his life by crashing himself into a tall office building?

Is it possible there are links between bin Laden and Philippine terrorists?

The worrying prospect of attacks on Muslims has been powerfully condemned by the SNP’s former leader Alex Salmond:

 “We are privileged to have in Scotland one of the most productive and patriotic Muslim communities.

 “They are far more part of Scottish society than the morons and thugs who have been threatening them will ever be.”

When Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Yugoslavia, appears before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague, he ought not stand alone. General Wesley Clark (retired), commander of the NATO air war against Serbia, should be up there with him. And since there is no statute of limitations on war crimes or crimes against humanity, it would seem in order to bring former Senator Bob Kerrey and Henry Kissinger to the docket as well.

There is no shortage of reasons in much of the world to dislike the United States. From European capitals to the coca fields of South America and the assembly lines of Southeast Asia, the nation can appear arrogant and selfishly fixated on its own politics and interests.

The type of war we are dealing with ultimately is a protracted form of warfare in which there won’t be decisive victories. It’s often called “dark war” or “war in shadows,” because we don’t have an identifiable enemy or battlefield. It’s not the type of war the United States is used to waging.

Rumour round-up.

Wednesday 19th September 2001

The Taleban refuse to hand over Osama bin Laden without proof; its leader says, Bin Laden did not have the communications links or resources to organise the attacks — and the US should search for what he called the real culprits. See this text of a speech by Mullah Mohammed Omar to the meeting of Afghan clerics today.

71% of Scots support allied military action against those responsible for the terrorist assault on the USA. However, if military action means civilian casualties support drops to 40% with 45% opposed.

Letter from Afghanistan: The unpleasant happening of last Tuesday — that timid terrorist action — greatly depressed me and all the people of Afghanistan. We would like to share our condolences with the people of the united states, particularly with the families that lost their loved ones.

The FBI is investigating the possible presence of hijackers on a fifth plane on the day of the attacks. The flight was cancelled because of a mechanical problem minutes before its scheduled departure from Boston at 08:10. FBI officials acknowledge that the bureau is being hampered by a severe shortage of investigators fluent in Arabic or Farsi. Later reports suggest a sixth flight may also have been targetted, one scheduled to depart Newark at 08:50 and which was forced to land later at St. Louis. One of the terrorists is now known to have links with Iraqi intelligence.

Saudi officials are claiming that some of those named as being the suicide hijackers who flew into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon are alive and innocent. The attackers may have used false or stolen passports.

The Peacemakers Speak: Nobel Peace Laureates talk about the attacks on the USA.

In Pakistan, support for the USA could prompt an uprising by Muslim religious leaders against the military government. President Musharraf says that Pakistan is facing its worst crisis for 30 years. A Muslim leader in Britain has called for the death of President Musharraf:

In his BBC radio interview the Syrian-born [Sheikh Omar Bakhri Mohammed] said: “The fatwa is calling on Muslims to stand together and support Muslims in Afghanistan and to reject the authority of Musharraf.” Asked if this amounted to a death threat, he said: “The fatwa itself, yes, declares General Musharraf apostate and, therefore, Muslims in the army should not support him. They should punish him for his crimes.”

An interview with Mary Anne Weaver in 1999:

Essentially, [blowback] means “fallout”: the unintended consequences or ramifications of an operation or a policy that, ultimately, goes very wrong and comes back to haunt you one day. Afghanistan, about which I wrote in my article on blowback, was one such American casualty.

It isn’t just in the Middle East that you can find people smiling at the USA’s misfortune. However, for the Chinese government this is an opportunity to forge closer ties with the USA.

And in the Middle East, Arafat’s call for Palestinians not to fire on Israeli troops, even in self-defence, wrong-footed Sharon; Sharon has now ordered the withdrawal of troops from Palestinian areas. Are the Israelis and Palestinians stumbling into peace?

More information about the Macau arrests: an apparent security bungle which, in the wake of last Tuesday’s attacks and Washington’s subsequent declaration of war against terrorism, demonstrates just how much recent events have put governments and individuals on edge.

Why they hate the U.S. so fiercely: [T]his current model of terrorism is based on the sense that … the global arrogance of the United States must be curbed.

Richard Dawkins was writing in the Guardian the other day about the way young men can be persuaded to fly aeroplanes into buildings, to their certain death — or, in his words, become “misguided missiles”. The answer, he says, is to convince them that they will survive death, going directly to a paradise where they will be waited on by many, many virgins:

You’d have to get them young, though. Feed them a complete and self-consistent background mythology to make the big lie sound plausible when it comes. Give them a holy book and make them learn it by heart. Do you know, I really think it might work. As luck would have it, we have just the thing to hand: a ready-made system of mind-control which has been honed over centuries, handed down through generations. Millions of people have been brought up in it. It is called religion…

I’ve said before that Dawkins has a very stereotyped view of religion: Dawkins always seems to consider religious as meaning exclusively Judeao-Christian-Islamic fundamentalism. I’ve noted that he has no clear concept of the functions of religion in adherents’ lives. This article is yet another illustration of this.

It’s also bollocks. Is he saying that there is no other possible motivation for such actions? None at all?

Leaving aside the clinically depressed, might not a young man give up his life for a cause he believes in? Or for his country? His family? If the RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain had known, then, that they were certain to be killed, rather than just extremely likely to be killed, they would not have flown their sorties — or if they did, they would only do so because they believed in an afterlife? Would no one give his life in, say, an attack on an implacable enemy who had slaughtered fellow countrymen, family, loved ones?

Is religion, and religious belief in an afterlife, really the only explanation for suicide attacks?

Is Dawkins Professor of the Public Understanding of Science — or of Publicly Misunderstanding Religion?

There’s a new worm on the Internet, W32.Nimda.A@mm. As usual, it targets security holes in Microsoft software. Here’s a security bulletin for users of MSIE. The US Attorney General says there is no evidence of any link between the appearance of the worm and last Tuesday’s attacks, but the FBI is investigating. The NIPC has warned of “vigilante hacking”, targetting DDoS attacks on groups associated with the terrorist attacks.

The Toronto Film Festival: crowds gasp when the World Trade Centre appears in background shots of the new film Serendipity.

Tuesday 18th September 2001

The Taleban prepare for war and declare jihad on the USA, saying the allegations are baseless and that the U.S.A. and all imperialists in the world, Jews and Christians and their supporters, are intending to destroy the Islamic order … under this pretext.

Or maybe they don’t declare jihad.

Osama Bin Laden should not be extradited from Afghanistan without concrete proof of his involvement in terrorism, say the religious scholars gathered to consider the matter.

Saddam Hussein claims the USA accuses Osama bin Laden of responsibility for the attacks without any evidence to back this up:

But the US has made the charge before verification, even before possessing the minimum evidence about such a charge… What does this mean? In a nutshell, it means that the US gives no heed to the law or rely on it… It was only the US administration that has made the charge against a certain religion, not just a given nationality… In fact, some officials have denied that their policy is one of making the charge against a given religion. However, we believe that the lack of evidence to make a charge… can only be understood as a premeditated charge without evidence that the action was carried out by Moslems…

More precisely, the US on the level of its rulers has taken it as a final verdict that it is the enemy of Arabs and Moslems.

The heroes of Flight 93: The last words the operator heard him say were directed at someone else in the background: ‘Are you ready? Let’s roll.’ See also here.

Macau police released three of seven men they arrested and continue to insist none were held in connection with terrorist offences.

Two out of three British voters back air strikes, with 63% prepared to see British troops, ships and planes take part. But:

[W]hen voters were asked if they would continue to support military action against countries that harbour terrorists “if it meant that the United States and Nato (including the UK) got into a war” then some attitudes begin to change: 49% support hitting back if it means getting into a prolonged war.

The first stage of the conflict, according to initial, conservative estimates, could last two to three years.

Can Bush win where Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the British Empire and the Soviet Union all failed? Why Afghanistan is so resistant to a conquering army.

“If the Americans go to war, I pity those boys,” Yuri Shamanov, a former Soviet colonel, said last week. “I pity their mothers and sisters and brothers. It will be 10 times worse than Vietnam. Vietnam will be a picnic by comparison. Here they will get it in the teeth. Oh, they will get it good.”

Judges in the US have postponed several trials of Muslims amid fears that they are unlikely to receive a fair hearing Meanwhile, Long Island police have arrested the complainant in a phony hate crime!

British Sikhs have begun an urgent campaign to explain who they are and how they differ from the similarly turbaned and bearded Taleban, but some say it may already be too late.

An Iranian-American does some soul-searching.

Iain Duncan Smith has offered Tony Blair a virtual suspension of party politics for as long as the “war” against terror attacks goes on.

Almost forgotten in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks: the Westerners detained in Afghanistan, accused of “preaching Christianity”.

Two weeks ago, if you’d have suggested some of these measures, people would have said to stop acting like Big Brother… Now, it’s, ‘How fast can you do it?’

What is most depressing, however, is how little time is spent trying to understand America’s role in the world, and its direct involvement in the complex reality beyond the two coasts that have for so long kept the rest of the world extremely distant and virtually out of the average American’s mind.

Far from being the terrorists of the world, the Islamic peoples have been its victims — that is, the victims of American fundamentalism, whose power, in all its forms, military, strategic and economic, is the greatest source of terrorism on earth.

The US arouses in billions of people the same kind of murderous fury that led to the French and Russian revolutions. But this time, it’s on TV.

The United States is a country that believed itself not just at peace but war-proof, a self-perception that would come as quite a surprise to most Iraqis, Palestinians and Colombians. Like an amnesiac, the U.S. has woken up in the middle of a war, only to find out it has been going on for years.

We are at war, and we must respond accordingly, causing maximum damage as quickly as possible with minimum risk to and loss of American lives. We must deliver an ultimatum to Iran, Iraq, Syria, the Sudan, Libya and Afghanistan: within seven days, disarm your military, destroy all terrorist camps within your borders, and allow constant inspections henceforth to guarantee that you do not again become a threat to American citizens. If these countries fail to comply—which is extremely likely, given America’s record of vacillation and weakness in the face of decades of terrorist attacks—we must unhesitatingly bomb the terrorist camps to rubble, AND raze the capitals of the countries in question, starting with Afghanistan. Blow them out of the 21st century and back to the period that had no respect for life, liberty and property: the Dark Ages.

Normally when we see buildings explode, it is the Americans doing it. This time it’s just the other way around.

Are you shit scared yet? No? Then read this.

You’re entering the Darwin Zone: man brings gun home to protect against terrorists, and it accidentally kills his 3-year-old-son.

Maybe it’s possible that all Palestinian demonstrations look alike:

The suggestion that CNN used 10-year-old images to illustrate Palestinians celebrating the terrorist strikes in the U.S. is baseless and ridiculous. The videotape was, in fact, shot Tuesday in East Jerusalem by a Reuters TV crew…

Christian fuckwit ‘apologises’ and says he was taken out of context. What, exactly, about this:

 “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen,’” Falwell said on the program, which was broadcast nationally.

is dependent on context? Sadly, Falwell isn’t alone in his fuckwitry — “The Legend Himself” Charlie Daniels [who the fuck he?] says, inter alia:

I have come to some realizations concerning this tragedy … Why has this happened? … We have allowed radical groups like the A.C.L.U. to all but remove the name and reverence for God from American society. We have murdered untold millions of unborn children and tolerated an immoral president in the name of a good economy. We have proclaimed that homosexuality is just another lifestyle when the Bible clearly states that it is an abomination to God. We have encouraged illegitimate birth, and condoned living together out of wedlock, practiced racial prejudice and child molestation, followed new age religions and harebrained spiritual leaders. Some of our music is fit for nothing but a garbage can …

[That original link no longer works, but the piece can still be found — if you really want to read it — here, where it is also revealed that Charlie Daniels is a C&W Entertainer. He has some cheek talking about music fit for nothing but a garbage can.]

The concept of a privileged ‘official’ opposition — which dominates Commons procedure and results in an additional £500,000 payment of taxpayers’ money to one party — should be abandoned as an anachronism, say the Liberal Democrats.

And about time too: [W]e have decided that this match should be played as a single tie at a neutral venue. Just why does UEFA think its authority is higher than the Foreign Office’s anyway?

A truly stupendous piece of bad timing.

Will this remain in The Onion’s archive or will it be pulled?

Monday 17th September 2001

Pakistani has sent a military delegation to Afghanistan to demand that the Taleban hand Osama bin Laden over to the USA. Chances of success are thought to be slim — but they might just get over to the Taleban the sort of fate which awaits them if they don’t co-operate. There are apparently already 50 US security agents in Pakistan. The Pakistani president is already being ferociously criticed by militants for his support of the USA.

Accounts that five Pakistani nationals arrested in Macau are linked to the attacks on the USA are being played down.

Was the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud, an opponent of the Taleban, a pre-emptive strike by Osama bin Laden to remove a potential US ally before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon?

In Britain, most Muslims condemn the attacks — but some are calling on young Muslims to fight to the death against America and her allies. Sheik Omar Bakri Mohamed said after the attacks, I am very happy today. As much as I regret the innocent people who passed away, with the USA you must pay. One extremist has said:

 “We will never be accepted by the Kufr [the west] so we should not pander to their whims or support their actions like some so-called Muslims have been doing.

 “If they continue to do so, it is our duty to persuade them not to. But if they do not listen, they are Kufr too and so it is our duty to fight and even kill them.”

According to Pravda, Three days remain to the start of military action against the Taleban. Russian troops on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border have been put on alert.

It is reported that the SAS is likely to be involved in any attempt to capture bin Laden.

As well as bin Laden, the Iranian terrorist “warlord” who was behind the kidnapping of Terry Waite may also have been involved in the World Trade Center & Pentagon attacks.

An Afghan-American speaks: You can’t bomb us back into the Stone Age. We’re already there. But you can start a new world war, and that’s exactly what Osama bin Laden wants.

Talking of the Stone Age, a Telegraph columnist is convinced that The World Trade Centre outrage was co-ordinated on the internet, without question. (Oh, no need to look for evidence, then.) He wants Washington to ban the transmission of encrypted messages. But what if an ISP — and by no means all ISPs are within US jurisdiction — refuses to ban such traffic? He has the answer: Uncompliant providers on foreign territory should expect their buildings to be destroyed by cruise missiles. [I am seriously thinking of starting a Fuckwit of the Week award.] Anti-encryption moves by the US are already being strongly opposed in Australia, and even in America, even after last week, the geeks are fighting back.

All this of course follows the allegations, supported by no fact at all, that the terrorists may have used MS Flight Simulator games to practice! There seem to be a lot of journalists scared of technology…

As for the MS Flight Simulator, the World Trade Centre is being removed from the game. Am I cynical, or will the original with the WTC become a collectors’ item?

The aftermath: a Sikh man is killed in Arizona, his only crime that he looked Arabic and wore a turban.

The aftermath: the Bush administration is considering lifting a 25-year-old ban on U.S. involvement in foreign assassinations and loosening restrictions on FBI surveillance.

In Jerusalem, Jaffa Road has been renamed New York Street. Arial Sharon has called Yasser Arafat an unreconstructed terrorist and Israel’s bin Laden. Sharon has said he will agree to a meeting between Shimon Peres and Arafat if there is complete cessation of violence for 48 hours; but one can’t help but feel the Palestinians have a point when they say, How can he expect that no bullet be fired by the Palestinians, when he surrounds Ramallah with tanks and his planes are flying over the city?

American Vice President Dick Cheney has described how he took charge at the time of the crisis last Tuesday.

There has been much comment on the failure of the intelligence services in the USA; now it transpires that Mossad warned the CIA in August of the existence of a cell of as many of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation

When will America ever learn? Being anti-communist or anti-drugs does not make an odious regime — such as the Taleban — a good group to support.

One of the truly unique features of the past week’s events is the complete lack of jokes. Think of any major catastrophe — Challenger, for example — and you note the rapid flowering of (usually not very funny, in many cases what most people would say were “sick”) jokes, spreading through the Net. Of course, this is not dependant on the Net. I recall when Marc Bolan died, jokes spread fairly quickly by word of mouth. Some people can’t cope with this sort of thing, but it is a normal coping mechanism, a way of handling bad, perhaps terribly bad, events.

But I have encountered nothing in this line so far. OK, I haven’t exactly been looking, but then I’ve never exactly looked before and the jokes would start reaching me within a couple of days at most of the incident in question. This time, though, the appalling nature of last week’s attacks seems to have gone beyond that coping mechanism, and no one, not even the real sickmeisters, seems to be in the mood for joking about it.

Go to the Onion, for instance, and you will find nothing new there: they feel it is not appropriate to publish new content. The same goes for SatireWire.

The silence of the jokers is possibly the clearest sign of just how much last week’s slaughter has affected people around the world.

Sunday 16th September 2001

The latest news about the attacks on the World Trade Centre [if you are unsure of the local geography of NYC, here’s an interactive map]: another man arrested in the USA; a man arrested at Heathrow is to be questioned by the FBI; so far, attempts to get information from the “black box” of Flight 93 have failed; the funerals begin: New York Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge is laid to rest. If passengers had not brought down Flight 93, the US Air Force was ready to shoot it down.

It isn’t just the USA and UK which have lost nationals in the slaughter in NYC: I’ve heard a report that 35 countries are affected. One of them is India.

More personal accounts:

• …I can tell it’s something, because three people wedged around me are actually making eye contact.
• …we could see the upper stories disintegrating rapidly.

For many Americans, the question is: are we up to it? Another question: what will this do to the American psyche?

Nothing less than a declaration of war — the editorial view of the Sunday Times. Henry Kissinger writes of A war to free the future from fear. What are the West’s military options?

There have been voices counselling caution and measured response, or straightforwardly calling for peace — but there are those calling openly for rage and retribution:

For once, let’s have no “grief counselors” standing by with banal consolations, as if the purpose, in the midst of all this, were merely to make everyone feel better as quickly as possible. We shouldn’t feel better.

For once, let’s have no fatuous rhetoric about “healing.” Healing is inappropriate now, and dangerous. There will be time later for the tears of misfortune note…

Let America explore the rich reciprocal possibilities of the fatwa.

Most comment I’ve seen on that article can be effectively summed up as: What an idiot

Another view:

In Islamic law, terrorism (hirabah) is considered cowardly, predatory and a grand sin punishable by death. Classical Islamic law explicitly prohibits the taking or slaying of hostages or diplomats even in retaliation against unlawful acts by the enemy. Furthermore, it prohibits stealth or indiscriminate attacks against enemies, Muslim or non-Muslim. One can even say that classical jurists considered such acts to be contrary to the ethics of Arab chivalry and therefore fundamentally cowardly.

So, what did happen to Islamic tolerance?

Australia has pledged troops and a ship to the multinational force being assembled by the USA. Egypt has said it will co-operate with the USA. Colin Powell has confirmed that Pakistan has agreed to all of the USA’s requests for co-operation; however, there are signs of internal dissension in the Pakistani government. The UAE, one of only three states which recognise the Taleban rule of Afghanistan (the others are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia), is reviewing its ties with the militant Islamic movement. The Muslim world has almost wholly condemned the attacks: It’s not courage in any way to kill an innocent person, or to kill thousands of people, including men and women and children, says Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi. America has warned that it will judge other countries by by their willingness to help in an alliance against the terrorists.

Investigations are under way in Japan to see if any trading on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges around the time of the attacks could be linked to bin Laden.

Arial Sharon is going to crush Arafat.

Report from the Telegraph: Osama bin Laden’s group planned a nerve gas attack on the European Parliament in February.

Bin Laden is again categorically denying any involvement in the attacks.

As I’ve noted before, bin Laden has his supporters. In Bengal, a teacher beat up a student who was speaking against bin Laden.

The BBC’s David Loyn wonders if Colin Powell has learned the wrong lessons from Vietnam

The reports of anger being directed at Muslims prompts President Bush to speak out against hostility to Arabs and Muslims.

Europe is reviewing aircraft safety. In America, airlines are suffering financially as a result of the week’s events.

More about how the Net coped — this time it’s Le Monde which is impressed:

L’infrastructure du Web a bien résisté à la soudaine montée en puissance du trafic en direction des sites d’information. Il a ainsi pallié les défaillances du réseau téléphonique, saturé après les attaques. Dans ce contexte exceptionnel, il s’est révélé un instrument de communication fiable et rapide.

[English]

However, the Internet response had its problems.

Microsoft sucks — but I don’t think they deserve this sort of attack.

A truly sick-making thought: tribute songs.

Multiculturalism is something that many of us see as being a positive thing; but is it simply politically correct racism?

An anthropologist writes on fundamentalism and religious revival.